Operating system not found - vista - Sony vaio

This is a discussion on Operating system not found - vista - Sony vaio within the Laptop Support forums, part of the Tech Support Forum category. I've had my Sony vaio (VGN-FW21M Vista Home Premium) for about 18 months now and never had a problem with

I've had my Sony vaio (VGN-FW21M Vista Home Premium) for about 18 months now and never had a problem with it until yesterday. It was working fine all day but after leaving it idle for a couple of hours I came back to find that it wouldn't wake back up but it was very noisy (much louder than usual) like lots of programs were running however the screen remained blank so I had to force shutdown using the power button. Now every time I switch it on after getting past the vaio logo all I get is "operating system not found" and the hard drive makes a clicking sound. I've tried the hardware diagnostic hard disk repair and recovery tool on the recovery disc but there is no volume available to select and when i tried startup repair it says "no hard drive". I've checked the hard drive and it's in fine and the laptop has not been dropped or damaged in anyway

Thanks, I tried this but my hard drive is not there when i go to the 'computer' directory whilst running ubuntu from a disc, seems as though the hdd is already dead . luckily i did a full back up a couple of weeks ago so i wont lose to much data, so i will just go buy a new hdd, not sure which to get though, any advice? Also do you know what may have caused the hdd to die, would it be caused by the fact that I pretty much leave my laptop on all the time?

Hi ok well that was good at least you have a backup,to be honest there is no real way to tell they can fail straight out the box or last for years,if you wish have a look at the info posted here second post http://www.techsupportforum.com/f16/...er-194492.html as to the hdd replacement I would look for the best warranty on offer from the makers there are quite a few ie seagate,hitachi,western digital to name a few

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